Cruel!

• Industrial court official strangles 9-month pregnant wife to death

From GYANG BERE, Jos

Victor Buba and his wife, Irene have been married for seven and half years. They are blessed with two beautiful girls, Lisa and Ann. But their marriage can be  described as a good example of a troubled union, filled with strife, rancour and physical attacks, which recently culminated in the killing of the nine-month-pregnant woman by the husband.

Victor, a 37-year-old Librarian at the National Industrial Court, Jos, had lived a  life of strife with his 33-year-old late wife, Irene, who was a teacher at Government Secondary School, West of Mines Jos. The wife had confronted him severally with allegations of infidelity, which has been the sour point in their marriage.

Crux of the matter

His late wife had accused him of extra marital affairs and receiving of phone calls from women at strange hours. As a result, he was said to have barred her from picking his calls and probing his private life. In strict compliance to the rules articulated by Victor, the late Irene had agreed not to pick his calls but also warned him never to come close to her phone or receive her calls.

The duo who hail from Jibilik village in Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State lived together in Anwan Beki, Dadin Kowa community in Jos South Local Government Area where they moved to newly.

Precisely, on Friday June 2, 2017, late Irene closed earlier from work and picked a small hoe from the school to go and plant some seeds in their farm at Kanga village, New Abuja in Dadin Kowa while her husband, Victor decided to take her to the farm in his car because of her pregnancy.

Tragedy

In the farm, while planting and weeding was going on, the wife’s handset rang and Victor attempted to pick it, but the wife who had been nursing grudges against him over alleged infidelity got angry and hit him with her small hoe on his head. In the scuffle, Victor allegedly seized the hoe from her, hit her head with it before strangling her neck with the hoe.

Sadly, the woman died in her pool of blood. Terrified, Victor became helpless as he tried to pull her up but the lifeless body was too heavy for him as his car was parked in a distance.

After few minutes of battling to rescue her, he spotted a man in a distance coming out from a river and sought his help to rescue his dying wife. Both eventually picked Irene into the car and drove to Air Force Hospital Jos where she was attending antenatal.

It was however too late as doctors on duty could not do anything to revive her. The corpse was taken to the theatre for Caesarean Section (CS) but unfortunately, the baby boy was removed dead and the corpse later deposited at the morgue.

A distressed Victor was said to have left home and could not inform his mother in-law, Rehila Irimiya who is a widow until at about 9pm on the ill-fated day. He only told them Irene slumped and died without giving details of what happened.

Fresh twist

Eight days after, precisely Friday 9, June 2017, the day fixed for the burial Irene’s family was yet to know what actually killed their daughter. Friends and family members had assembled at the Air Force Hospital mortuary as early as 8am to convey the corpse for burial. Her colleagues at Government Secondary School West of Mines, Jos printed T-Shirts to bid her farewell but when Victor arrived the Hospital’s gate, he was asked by an Air Police to give a statement of how his wife died.

Immediately, Victor was said to have turned restless and started giving conflicting statements. As a result, the mortuary attendant was ordered not to release the corpse. His in-laws, who were in the hospital became confused when soldiers asked them to leave the hospital premises until further notice.

Late Irene’s uncle, Mr. James who saw Victor where he was held by the Air Police, giving conflicting statements, had demanded to see the corpse in the mortuary. When he saw a thick dark line on the neck of Irene, a sign of deep cut, he ordered that the case be referred to Anglo Jos Police Station, from where it was later referred to Rantya Low Cost Police Division for a thorough investigation.

Confession

The Police had since transferred the case to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Plateau State Police Command Jos, where Victor spoke to our Correspondent and confessed to committing the crime of killing his wife out of anger.

His words, “I had a conflict with my wife in the farm about handset; her phone was ringing and I wanted to pick it for her and she hit my head with a small hoe in her hand and we started fighting and dragging the hoe, I over powered her and pressed her neck with the hoe, she slumped and died. I didn’t know that she was dead until when she was confirmed dead in the hospital.

“It was her phone and she had earlier warned me not to pick her calls but when the call entered, I was trying to see who was calling to give her the phone; I had no intention of picking the call, she got angry and hit me with the hoe. I did not plan to kill her, it was anger that made me kill her, I regretted my action and I confessed to the police. What I did was very bad and I am regretting it, it was anger that caused it, please I need forgiveness”.

Early signs

Late Irene had packed out of her matrimonial home to squat with her immediate younger sister, Bwebum in August 2016 after a fight with her husband over a 16-year-old housemaid, called Noro. She had suspected her husband of having sex with the housemaid whenever she was away to work, accusing the girl of being very rude whenever she scolded her.

When the quarrel persisted, the maid was returned to her parents in Shendam Local Government Area of the state. That however didn’t end their issue, as family members alleged that Victor maltreated late Irene, beating her at will and that, that contributed to her moving out of the house. She however returned to her husband in September 2016 when school resumed but they lived like cat and mouse until her abrupt death.

Late Irene who hails from Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State is the first among six siblings in her family and had Diploma in French from Federal Collage of Education Pankshin. Her father died in December, 2003.

Victor, who was an ex-Banker, was sacked from First Bank in Yola, he return to Jos and joined Finbank, he was subsequently sacked before he secured employment with National Industrial Court.  He had Diploma from Plateau State Polytechnic Barkin-Ladi.